WASHINGTON,
DC – Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today that Kentucky will receive
a total of $1,411,899 to support prisoner reentry initiatives. The Kentucky
award was among 68 grants totaling $100 million to support efforts to ensure
public safety and reduce victimization by helping returning offenders become
productive members of their communities.Forty-nine states, including Kentucky, and the District of Columbia and
Virgin Islands will receive the funds.

The
grants, awarded by the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP),
are part of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, an unprecedented
collaboration among the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health
and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor and Veterans
Affairs.

“By
educating and treating offenders, we are not only helping them improve their lives,
we are reducing the chance they will return to crime and drug abuse,” said
Attorney General Ashcroft.“My hope is
that the reentry programs will improve public safety and reduce the burden on
law enforcement and corrections.”

The
Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative will build on innovative
reentry efforts in states for both juveniles and adults with the goal that
these efforts serve as nationwide models.Reentry efforts will begin while offenders are still in correctional
facilities, continue through offenders’ transition back into the community and
help sustain ex-offenders through services such as employment training and
substance abuse and mental health treatment.Efforts will be tailored to any one, or combination of, the following
age groups: Youth (ages 14 ‑ 17); Young Adult (ages 18 ‑ 24) and
Adult (ages 25-plus).These efforts
involve close coordination among institutional corrections, law enforcement,
community corrections and other community-based service providers.

“These
programs are all tailored to meet the unique needs of the state and local
communities,” added Ashcroft.“But they
draw together different disciplines to develop state-of-the art, integrated
reentry efforts.”

The
Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative is designed to address all
three stages involved in returning an offender to the community.The process involves education, treatment
and life skills programs while offenders are in institutions, services and
supervision as they reenter the community and networks of agencies, and
individuals to support offenders as they become productive and law-abiding
members of their communities.

More
information about the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative and other
OJP programs is available on OJP’s Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov .Media should contact OJP’s Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs at 202/307-0703.